**4.6 Factors constraining biogas use**

In a multiple response question, respondents were asked to mention the constraining factors towards biogas use adoption. The main factors mentioned were that the installation cost was too high (95.8%) and lack of credit facility (95%). Other reasons were lack of expertise (91.7%) and inadequate water (60%) to run the plants. Only a small proportion of 3.3% out of the 120 respondents said they do not need the facility. This may suggest that if the access to biogas is facilitated either through subsidy or access to credits many households in the district could adopt the technology. A comparison across the categories suggest that

 1 Giné and Klonner , 2005

Dairy Farming and the Stagnated Biogas

accessing sustainable clean energies.

Luhanga 1993).

Use in Rungwe District, Tanzania: An Investigation of the Constraining Factors 321

policy, which is the main guidance for change, backed by legislation and regulation. The ministry also facilitates mobilisation of resources into areas where market forces fail to ensure adequate energy services. The policy put guidance for licensing operators, monitoring markets

Within the Ministry of Energy and Minerals there is a Rural Energy Agency (REA) for rural electrification. The policy acknowledges that around 80% of the population has very low purchasing power and depends mainly on wood-fuel for cooking and kerosene for lighting, which have negative consequences to the environment and the quality of life, especially to the rural poor. Rural electrification is a case of long-term national interest and a prerequisite for a balanced socio-economic growth for all in Tanzania through enabling rural poor

However, energy policy has attracted criticism in different ways. Stakeholders feel that consideration of improving clean energy by rural poor needs to be on the application of appropriate technologies that are affordable, environmentally sound and well adapted to local needs as explained in the Policy. Also, while gender issues have received attention at micro level in terms of technological interventions such as cookstoves, biogas, solar cookers, and wood plantations, they have yet to be addressed in macro level policies. Women's needs for energy vary depending on whether they are in urban or rural areas, their stage of economic development and whether they are economically active. Parikh (1995) makes a plea to include gender issues in macro level energy policies such as energy investment, imports and pricing. Also there is inadequate information and data on how the ongoing and planned power sector reform can be modified to address the existing challenges, particularly with regard to electrification of the poor (Karekezi and Kimani, 2002). A study by Barnes and Floor (1996) highlights constraints towards improving clean energy in rural development and these include the widespread inefficient production and use of traditional energy sources fuelwood and charcoal which pose economic, environmental, and health threats. Also the highly uneven distribution and use of modern energy sources such as electricity, petroleum products and liquefied or compressed natural gas, pose important issues of economics, equity, and quality of life. The policy does not provide adequate strategies on overcoming these. Many developing countries including Tanzania has general energy policies pertaining to the development of electricity, oil and renewable energy subsectors for the benefit of the public and the economy. However, the absence of sharply focused, pro-rural energy policy and/or their policy instruments has been the major challenges towards the observed stagnation of some initiatives like the biogas (Habtetsion and Tsighe, 2002). The Energy Policy formulation in Tanzania takes place in the context of great uncertainty, due to mainly pressures exerted by conflicting interests (Mwandosya and

Within the Energy Policy, biogas has received a low profile or recognition. There is no specific policy statement to explain and strategies for the promotion of biogas technology in rural Tanzania; rather everything is dumped in the category of renewable energy. Omer and Fadalla (2003) recommends that biogas technology must be encouraged, promoted,

The main challenges facing biogas technology is inappropriate institutional structure and/or gaps in the structure, in addition to lack of corporate culture; poor incentives; and,

invested, implemented, and demonstrated, but especially for remote rural areas.

and performance; and applying any other necessary regulatory measures.

Wealth Category *Slightly Well-off Less Poor The Poor* Total Too costly 81.8 98.7 100.0 95.8 Inadequate expertise 95.5 91.7 95.8 91.7 Inadequate water 45.5 54.2 95.8 60 Lack of credit facilities 86.4 98.6 100.0 95 Not aware 9.1 6.9 20.8 10 Do not need 9.1 1.4 4.2 3.3

respondents from *the poor* and *less poor* were more in demand for credits and also mentioned the facility to be too costly (Table 6), suggesting a different kind of approach to induce them adopt the technology.

Table 6. Factors constraining biogas adoption in Rungwe district (%)
